Watch out for Jump Ball Joe

Mack Herron said:

Not really concerned about toughness on the defensive side. As other have said, it is the OL vs. Ngata, Suggs et al. that will need to step up their play. Even if the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages of the Mankins trade, I believe we lost some toughness and attitude with Mankins that has not been replaced.

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Agreed but here is the deal, a decent, not fantastic running game neutralizes Ngata, as far as Suggs a good short passing game does the same to him, some quick paced offense does the same. Suggs really hasn't been the problem for NE when they played in the past! few play here or there but not a domination like he had against the steelers last night, NE seems to do a good job against him. Dumerville is the guy to watch. But again NE has historically done well against him also.

This worries me with browner. He usually gets called for a ticky tack penalty every game

shmessy said:

Plus Ridley got HIDEOUSLY concussed on what was a gruesome play to watch. I literally had to leave the room for a moment. They were behind by 8 with lots of time to go and were driving, but once that happened, it was over.

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Just glad there's no Bernard Pollard this time around.

chasa said:

I said it when the rule changed, This league is built for qb's like flacco. the only thing elite about him is his ability to throw the ball really far so that his receivers can flop for 60 yard penalties.

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This is one of the reasons why I cannot get up much excitement for this game.

TommyBrady12 said:

Concussed by no other than bernard pollard

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I hate Pollard and would love to see him get a career-ending injury. But I can't blame him for the Ridley concussion. For once he was going for the body (mid chest) and Ridley lowered his head into the path of Pollard's head.

Oswlek said:

Truly, my biggest fear about this game is ******** DPI penalties. The playoff loss in 2012 doesn't bother me at all - NE played terrible and deserved to lose - but the regular season when the replacements massaged a 40-17 win into an absurd 31-30 loss still gnaws at me.

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Even with the refs, the Patriots still win if McCourty or Arrington don't drop/stumble the easy interceptions.

rlcarr said:

I hate Pollard and would love to see him get a career-ending injury. But I can't blame him for the Ridley concussion. For once he was going for the body (mid chest) and Ridley lowered his head into the path of Pollard's head.

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[...and then Pollard, realizing he had another opportunity to induce an injury on another player, took him out.] (Just making an assumption, can't picture the play in my head right now)

TBR said:

Saw this mentioned by someone on a Bill Simmons article:

ESPN’s Total QBR stat has a sub-category called “PEN EPA” which ESPN defines as “Clutch-weighted expected points added on penalties”, and Flacco is BY FAR the leader in this category. I looked back further, and it turns out the leader in that category for every year since 2009, other than 2012, has been none other than Joseph Vincent Flacco.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr/_/sort/cwepaPenalties

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You'd like to see the Competition Committee actually take a look into this garbage. As it stands now the guy is flat out exploiting the current system to the tune of 20 million a year.

Flacco is one of my least favorite players of all time, solely because of how his ineptness translates to success. The Jan. 2013 Denver game was the some of the most luck I have ever seen in the NFL and the next game vs. us they caught every break imaginable.

This time around, I am sure they will get Browner for some penalties but his physicality will be big in the long run, which is something the Steelers didn't have in the secondary (Polamalu is a shell of his former self).

We all hate S. Smith on this board, but unlike Talib, Revis won't fall victim to his hysterics, so mental toughness will be big there.

The big factor I see is that Boldin is gone (2 TD's in Jan. 2013) and Pitta is gone for the year (big Pats killer). If we can cover Daniels (easier said than done) and keep the long T. Smith PI's to under 3, we should win.

newenglandsports11 said:

Flacco is one of my least favorite players of all time, solely because of how his ineptness translates to success. The Jan. 2013 Denver game was the some of the most luck I have ever seen in the NFL and the next game vs. us they caught every break imaginable.

This time around, I am sure they will get Browner for some penalties but his physicality will be big in the long run, which is something the Steelers didn't have in the secondary (Polamalu is a shell of his former self).

We all hate S. Smith on this board, but unlike Talib, Revis won't fall victim to his hysterics, so mental toughness will be big there.

The big factor I see is that Boldin is gone (2 TD's in Jan. 2013) and Pitta is gone for the year (big Pats killer). If we can cover Daniels (easier said than done) and keep the long T. Smith PI's to under 3, we should win.

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Yeah, in reality Talib only gave up something like 40 yards to Smith but Smith owned Talib mentally, Revis doesn't have that history with Smith and he's miles ahead of Talib in the maturity department.

I remember Talib holding onto Smith's ankles not allowed him to get up and then pushing him back to the ground in that game last year. Talib was pathetic.

I think this game plays out like how we beat Detroit. Little attempt to run, no hurry passing all game long. The OL should be fully healthy along with all of our top receivers being healthy. Run it 30-40% of the time if we're having success but it's probably not going to work so don't waste the down.

Ravens back end is much worse in coverage than nearly any team we've played all season, Pitt had receivers open on nearly every snap but Ben couldn't find them or he missed or they dropped.

Just glad Revis is playing for the Patriots rather than Talib. When the chips are down he is not around. Reminds of the the blond bully from the Rodney Dangerfield movie "Back to School" that grabs his hamstring and bows out when the pressure was on.

cant wait to see how many flags the refs pick up on his bombs!

newenglandsports11 said:

Flacco is one of my least favorite players of all time, solely because of how his ineptness translates to success

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Bingo. Terrible QB who picks up a free 45 yards every week via referees. Gets paid $15M+ per year to do so.

Uncle Rico said:

Just glad there's no Bernard Pollard this time around.

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Also no Boldin nor Pitta. These two are the ones that did most of the damage in our last bout.

doesntmatter1 said:

Also no Boldin nor Pitta. These two are the ones that did most of the damage in our last bout.

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Boldin absolutely killed us that game. I believe Arrington was on him after *shocker* Talib got injured, and it was painful to watch. The defense, with guys like Guyton, was definitively not fun to watch.

Mark12 said:

Boldin absolutely killed us that game. I believe Arrington was on him after *shocker* Talib got injured, and it was painful to watch. The defense, with guys like Guyton, was definitively not fun to watch.

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Marquice Cole, lol. Yes, Talib got hurt.

BB will coach our secondary to watch for this, and our secondary is good enough to not fall for it too often. OK, maybe once. But it won't lose us the game. Remember how people were all scared of the amazing Lions defensive front 7? How'd that work out for them against us? F the Ravens, this is revenge tour. We have Gronk. We have Edelman. We have LaFell. Revis. Collins.Etc etc..

BB will have us very well prepared. We got this.

Mack Herron said:

Not really concerned about toughness on the defensive side. As other have said, it is the OL vs. Ngata, Suggs et al. that will need to step up their play. Even if the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages of the Mankins trade, I believe we lost some toughness and attitude with Mankins that has not been replaced.

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Sure, as much I like the trade and the value it provided, it's certainly reasonable to think that losing Mankins = losing some piece of nastiness.

Like you said, it's all going to be about the OL and its ability to hold up. I also believe that we need to get the running game going and stick with some balance. That will allow for some pressure to be taken off of Brady and the OL.

For the record, BAL is averaging almost 6 sacks per game (5.75) in their last 4 victories, and has recorded at least 4+ sacks in their last 8/12 games. They can bring it, and in my opinion that's their #1 chance--point blank. It's an extremely obvious statement, but if the OL holds up, we should be fine.

supafly said:

Sure, as much I like the trade and the value it provided, it's certainly reasonable to think that losing Mankins = losing some piece of nastiness.

Like you said, it's all going to be about the OL and its ability to hold up. I also believe that we need to get the running game going and stick with some balance. That will allow for some pressure to be taken off of Brady and the OL.

For the record, BAL is averaging almost 6 sacks per game (5.75) in their last 4 victories, and has recorded at least 4+ sacks in their last 8/12 games. They can bring it, and in my opinion that's their #1 chance--point blank. It's an extremely obvious statement, but if the OL holds up, we should be fine.

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I still don't miss Mankins. I feel that he came up small in big games and that he gave Brady a false sense of security.

Big-T said:

Fully expecting to hear holding/illegal contact/pass interference #39, defense called a lot.

The worst thing about how the Ravens do it is that it's clearly coached into them - Torrey Smith got a call yesterday where he engaged contact on the DB by hooking him but because the DB didn't have his head turned he got called!

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I've often wondered if they coach to get penalties. I would, it seems so easy.